On April 4, the Libertarian Party filed a notice of appeal in Libertarian Party v D.C. Board of Elections. The issue is whether the D.C. Board must count write-in votes for President in November, for write-in presidential candidates who have filed a declaration of write-in candidacy and a slate of proposed presidential electors.

The U.S. District Court had ruled that the government’s interest in saving time and money overrides the right of a voter to have his or her vote counted. The District Court said the voter’s interest in having a vote counted is a “slight” burden. The District Court did not know that a federal law requires all jurisdictions to report the number of votes received by each legally-qualified candidate for presidential elector to the Federal Archives, because unfortunately the Libertarian Party did not know about this law until after the decision came down. The party’s 2008 candidates for presidential elector in D.C. were legally qualified. They had filed under the procedures that the Board of Elections itself had set up.